Uneasy Ceasefire Holding in Syria

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Russian coordination centre in Syria has registered nine violations of a cessation of hostilities in Syria in the past 24 hours, Russian news agencies quoted the head of the centre as saying on Sunday.

The centre’s Sergei Kuralenko added, however, that the cessation of hostilities agreed as part of a U.S.-Russian plan was holding “in general”.

He said the violations included shelling in the province of Latakia.

Russia’s coordination centre in Syria has received from the United States a list of 69 armed opposition groups which agree with the terms of the cessation of hostilities in Syria, Interfax news agency reported on Sunday.

The centre said the groups on the list included ones who had confirmed their agreement via the opposition’s High Negotiations Committee as well as ones who had told the U.S. directly that they agreed with the truce.

Russia had itself received declarations of agreement from 17 armed groups from Syria’s “moderate opposition”, the centre said in a statement cited by Interfax.

The centre added that it had registered six instances of shelling of residential areas of Damascus on Saturday from areas controlled by the “moderate opposition”.

(Reporting by Alexander Winning, by Alexander Winning; Editing by David Goodman)